Page 113 of Journey to the Scottish Highlands

I swallowed and wriggled upright on top of the bed. ‘It’s Evan.’

‘What about him?’

My brain kept replaying us laughing together in bed. It was torture. My voice shook. ‘He’s not who I thought he was. I mean, he is Evan Lord, but…’

‘Sweetheart, you’re not making any sense.’

I could see the early June sunshine out of the bedroom window, casting its golden hue over the tops of the trees. Everything looked like it had been brushed with rose gold, from the leaves and breeze-whispered lawns to the towering hedgerows. It was such a beautiful late afternoon, and yet I felt like my insides had been shredded. I was so stupid.

‘Daisy, talk to me.’

‘Evan is Fox.’

The shocked silence from Jade down the line made me wonder if she’d been cut off. ‘Are you kidding?’

‘I wish I was.’

‘But how do you know? I mean, did Evan tell you that?’

My insides twisted. ‘No. I saw an email on his laptop from a colleague at the newspaper asking when their editor could expect his latest column – Fox’s latest column – to be submitted.’

I flopped my head back against the pillows. ‘So I asked him about it, and he confessed. Said he’d been planning to tell me, but he’d fallen for me and just couldn’t bring himself to do it.’

Hurt swirled around inside me again. ‘He’s probably been laughing about this behind my back.’

‘I don’t think he would have been doing that,’ said Jade. ‘Didn’t you just say he’d told you that he’d fallen for you?’

I rubbed my red nose. ‘Yes, but I don’t believe him. Well, I did, but not anymore. How can I after this? Jade, he publicly mauled the TV series I was in. His words have ruined acting careers.’

I was fighting to forget the way I felt when he grinned at me; how my body had responded to his. I wanted to banish the memories of the chocolate swirls in his dark eyes. I pushed my mobile closer to my ear. I cleared my throat. ‘There’s something else.’

‘What?’

I didn’t want to say the words aloud, because I knew it would make the bliss of earlier haunt me again. ‘We slept together this afternoon. For the first time.’

Jade sighed. ‘Oh, honey.’

My chest was rising and falling harder. ‘It was wonderful. I was so happy. And then I saw that email, and everything came crashing down.’

Jade tutted. ‘Right. So, when are you going to leave that house? Have you started packing your things?’

I pushed around my hair for something to do. I’d been mulling all this over for the past hour. The sensible thing to do would be to pack, tell Grandpa to do the same and drive us straight back to Strath Ross.

In all honesty, that was what my common sense was screaming at me to do.

But then there was Alison, Bennett and Cayla. I couldn’t let them down. I couldn’t just walk away. The Lords had been wonderful to me, and there was no way I could leave Cayla when I’d told her to return to her acting and not give up. I’d be such a hypocrite if I did.

Cayla had agreed to portray Florence and was putting herself out there because of what I’d said to her and my faith in her. How could I abandon her now when she was on the verge of making her debut?

No.

It wouldn’t be for much longer. Just a few more days.

I could do it.

I’d acted opposite some right rude cretins in my time and been stuck with them for hours on end. The Ramblings was a big, old house. I would just make sure I avoided Evan and concentrated on what I had to do. ‘I’m not leaving The Ramblings,’ I blurted. ‘At least not yet.’

‘But how can you stay there after what you just told me?’